The Grand Canal is currently being upgraded to serve as the Eastern Route of the South-North Water Transfer Project. When the canal was completed it linked the systems of the Qiantang River, the Yangtze River, the Huai River, the Yellow River, the Wei River, and the Hai River. In 1488, the shipwrecked Korean scholar Choe Bu traveled the entire length of the Grand Canal on his way from Zhejiang to Beijing (and on to Korea) and left a detailed account of his trip. Currently, ships can only travel up to Jining. In 1169, with China divided between the Jurchen-led Jin dynasty in the north and the Southern Song dynasty in the south, the Southern Song Emperor Xiaozong sent a delegation to the Jurchen to wish their ruler well for the New Year. Although it was mainly used for shipping grain, it also transported other commodities and the corridor along the canal developed into an important economic belt. Starting at Beijing, it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou, linking the Yellow River and Yangtze River. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, however, the water level in the Tonghui River dropped and ships could not travel from Tongzhou to Beijing. [6], The Han Gou is known as the second oldest section of the later Grand Canal since the Hong Gou (t 鴻溝, s 鸿沟, Hónggōu, "Canal of the Wild Geese" or "Far-Flung Canal") most likely preceded it. In the Qing dynasty, the Kangxi and Qianlong emperors made twelve trips to the south, on all occasions but one reaching Hangzhou. Many of the canal sections fell into disrepair, and some parts were returned to flat fields. Together with its present-day course, 14 centuries of constructing the Grand Canal have left it with several historical sections. Some of the most significant sections include the Yilou Canal, Jizhou Canal, Huitong Canal, Jia Canal, Duke Huan’s Conduit, and the Nanyang New Canal. The oldest parts of the canal date back to the 5th century BC, but the various sections were first connected during the Sui dynasty (581–618 AD). From south to north these are the Jiangnan Canal, the Inner Canal, the Middle Canal, the Lu Canal, the South Canal, the North Canal, and the Tonghui River. Leading on from another thread: The shortest locks seem to be Firepool 55.12ft Mill Bank 54.13ft Huddersfield Broad lock 6 56.76ft Are all these actually usable by a 57ft narrowboat if placed diagonally in the lock? [36][37] This southernmost section of the canal runs from Hangzhou in Zhejiang, where the canal connects with the Qiantang River, to Zhenjiang in Jiangsu, where it meets the Yangtze. He achieved this by joining two of these rivers' tributaries, the Si and the Ji respectively, at their closest point, across a low watershed of the Shandong massif. [28] Between 1411 and 1415 a total of 165,000 laborers dredged the canal bed in Shandong and built new channels, embankments, and canal locks.[28]. Tuel Lane Lock: Rochdale Canal: grid reference: Deepest lock in the United Kingdom, with a fall of 19' 8½". In 12 BC, in order to solve the problem of the Grand Canal having to use 160 kilometers (100 mi) of the perilous course of the Yellow River in Northern Jiangsu, a man named Li Hualong created the Jia Canal. The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal is the oldest and longest man-made canal in the world and a famous tourist destination. [31], Besides its function as a grain shipment route and major vein of river-borne indigenous trade in China, the Grand Canal had long been a government-operated courier route as well. Although to spectators, the canal appears to be a deep waterway in these city centers, its depth is maintained by weirs and the canal is all but dry where it passes through the surrounding countryside. Even where a canal is lockless for its working length, there may need to be a lock at one end, to connect to a river or even the sea. During wartime, the high dikes of the Yellow River were sometimes deliberately broken in order to flood and thus sweep away advancing enemy troops. The Yellow River’s high dikes during wartime were sometimes intentionally broken so that it would flood enemy troops that were advancing the territory. Is it safe to harvest rainwater that fell on solar panels? [33] Because of various factors—the difficulty of crossing the Yellow River, the increased development of an alternative sea route for grain-ships, and the opening of the Tianjin-Pukou Railway and the Beijing-Hankou Railway—the canal languished and for decades the northern and southern parts remained separate. Here the land lying to the west of the canal is higher than its bed while the land to the east is lower. View the famous Foxton Locks without having to do them!! Following the invention of the pound lock in the 10th century, Chinese canals never … Construction of this mechanism began in November of 2011 and copied the design of the nearby Berendrecht Lock. The Twente Canal, opened in 1936, improved communication with the industrial east. [2] With the recorded labor of five million men and women under the supervision of Ma Shumou, the first major section of the Grand Canal was completed in the year 605—called the Bian Qu. Its channel includes 24 locks and is spanned by 60 bridges. 163 views [23] This allowed ships to wait within a gated space while the water could be drained to appropriate levels; the Chinese also built roofed hangars over the space to add further protection for the ships. Lock-free cruise along the Grand Union Canal in a 21-mile stretch. It rose to a height of 42 meters (138 ft) above the Yangtze, but environmental and technical factors left it with chronic water shortages until it was re-engineered in 1411 by Song Li of the Ming. It is a sea-level canal and does not require locks. The elevation of the canal bed varies from 1 m below sea level at Hangzhou to 38.5 m above at its summit. 8,900 kilometres saved ... terrain make the Suez Canal the longest canal without locks Source: BBC. Currently, the Grand Canal is primarily used for the transportation of a variety of bulk goods including coal, bricks, sand, gravel, and diesel. This ‘Inner Canal’ runs between the Yangtze and Huai'an in Jiangsu, skirting the Shaobo, Lake Gaoyou, and Hongze lakes of central Jiangsu. This makes navigating a little easier and all the locks and swing bridges are manned by Scottish Canals staff. [46], In 1848, Robert Fortune reached Hang Chow Foo by the Grand Canal in his quest for tea plants. The canal’s southern part remains in great use until today. During the Yuan dynasty, a further canal on the Tonghui River connected Tongzhou with a wharf called the Houhai or "rear sea" in central Beijing. The following are the most important but do not form an exhaustive list. While some of the sections have disappeared, there are others that still exist but are partially extant. Tongzhou then became the northern shipping terminus of the canal. In 1600, Matteo Ricci traveled to Beijing from Nanjing via the Grand Canal waterway to gain the support of the Wanli Emperor of the Ming dynasty with the help of Wang Zhongde, the Director of the Board of Rites in the central government of China at the time. Falkirk, Scotland, to Glasgow, 4 locks & 3 swing bridges. After Pizhou, a northerly course passes through Tai'erzhuang to enter Weishan Lake at Hanzhuang bound for Nanyang and Jining (this course is the remnant of the New Nanyang Canal of 1566 – see below). The Wei River at this point is heavily polluted while drought and industrial water extraction have left it too low to be navigable. 'Capital–Hangzhou Grand Canal', or more commonly, as the「大運河」("Grand Canal")), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the longest canal or artificial river in the world. This portion of the canal was used to transport troops to what is now the North Korean border region during the Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598–614). [7] Work began in 486 BC, from south of Yangzhou to north of Huai'an in Jiangsu, and within three years the Han Gou had connected the Yangtze with the Huai River utilizing existing waterways, lakes, and marshes. Major construction continued until after 600 A.D., and improvements are still being made to this day. It connects with the River Thames at Oxford, to the Grand Union Canal at the villages of Braunston and Napton-on-the-Hill, and to the Coventry Canal at Hawkesbury Junction in Bedworth just north of … Marco Polo recounted the Grand Canal's arched bridges as well as the warehouses and prosperous trade of its cities in the 13th century. Imagine all the cargo you can ship! In recent years, broad bypass canals have been dug around the major cities to reduce ‘traffic jams’. Construction began on the canal around 500 B.C. Together with its present-day course, 14 centuries of constructing the Grand Canal have left it with severa… North of the northernmost Nanyang Lake is the city of Jining. Dynasties in 1271–1633 significantly restored and rebuilt the canal and altered its route to supply their capital. As well as its present-day course, fourteen centuries of canal-building have left the Grand Canal with a number of historical sections. In 1289, a geological survey preceded its one-year construction. The scholar Gu Yanwu of the early Qing dynasty (1644–1912) estimated that the previous Ming dynasty had to employ 47,004 full-time laborers recruited by the lijia corvée system in order to maintain the entire canal system. Early canal construction took place in the Shanyin old canal in Shaoxing City, in the Spring and Autumn period (approximately 771 to 476 BC). [15] Besides being the headquarters for the government salt monopoly and the largest pre-modern industrial production center of the empire, Yangzhou was also the geographical midpoint along the north-south trade axis, and so became the major center for southern goods shipped north. 3. It is the longest big-ship ( as opposed to sub-sized barges) canal of its type in the World. The Suez Canal is the man-made feature most easily spotted from space. The government also planted an enormous line of trees. In the Netherlands the extensive canal system based on large natural rivers and serving the ports of Rotterdam and Amsterdam has required comparatively little modernization; but to avoid the Maas (Meuse) River, between Roermond and Maastricht, the Juliana Canal was built in 1935 and improved after World War II. Can a rogue use sneak attack with weapons that have the thrown property even if they are not thrown? The water level in the Jiangnan Canal remains scarcely above sea level (the Zhenjiang ridge is 12 meters higher than that of the Yangtze River). Karakum Canal without locks in Russia is the longest canal in the world with a total length of 1400 kilometer. After that, things get more tricky. The canal stretches over 1,100 miles from the city of Beijing to the city of Hangzhou. The Chinese Grand Canal is another unique attraction which undeservedly remains outside many travellers’ attention. China’s Grand Canal is the longest artificial waterway in the world, traveling over 1100 miles from Beijing to Hangzhou. The reopening of the Grand Canal also benefited Suzhou over Nanjing since the former was in a better position on the main artery of the Grand Canal, and so it became Ming China's greatest economic center. It includes ten city gates and over 20 stone bridges of traditional design and historic areas that have been well preserved as well as temples and pavilions. [2] The new canal was to pass not Xuzhou but Suzhou, to avoid connecting with the Si River, and instead make a direct connection with the Huai River just west of Lake Hongze. The jack-knife bridges at both ends rise as ships pass through the lock. Other sections form the basis of the present day-canal. In 1566, to escape the problems caused by flooding of the Yellow River around Yutai (now on the western shore of Weishan Lake), the Nanyang New Canal was opened. The canal starts at Beijing before passing through Tianjin and the Hebel, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang provinces to the city of Hangzhou, connecting the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. And more important point than that is the canal is not even a modern canal but was built by the Chinese in ancient times about 2500 years ago. Cargo was unloaded at Tongzhou and transported to Beijing by land. [30] Even the shipwrecked Korean Choe Bu (1454–1504)—while traveling for five months throughout China in 1488—acknowledged that Hangzhou served not as a competitor but as an economic feeder into the greater Suzhou market. 'the river of locks'. The main Lancaster Canal is lockless, but its Glasson branch has five locks. The Grand Canal of China is the the world’s longest canal with the length of 1800 kms. The construction of the Jia Canal left only 100 kilometers (62 mi) of Yellow River navigation on the Grand Canal, from Suqian to Huai'an, which by 1688 had been removed by the construction of the Middle Canal by Jin Fu. Even today, the Grand Canal has not fully recovered from this disaster. Many people have admired the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal throughout its history including the Persian historian Rashid al-Din, the Italian missionary Matteo Ricci, the Japanese monk Ennin, and the Korean official Choe Bu. The Grand Canal also enabled cultural exchange and political integration to occur between the north and south of China. [2] The chief engineer of the Sui dynasty, Yuwen Kai, advised the dredging of a new canal that would run parallel to the existing canal, diverging from it at Chenliu (Yanzhou). It is sometimes called the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal. As the north shore of the Yangtze gradually silted up to create the sandbank island of Guazhou, it became necessary for boats crossing to and from the Jiangnan Canal to sail the long way around the eastern edge of that island. The canal, now in Hebei province, passes through the cities of Dezhou and Cangzhou. Historically, the constant flooding of the Yellow River did not only threaten the functioning of the Grand Canal but also its safety. Although the Tang dynasty (618–907) capital at Chang'an was the most thriving metropolis of China in its day, it was the city of Yangzhou—in proximity to the Grand Canal—that was the economic hub of the Tang era. The Grand Canal is a man-made waterway that runs north and south in eastern China. It spans 1,100 miles [1,770 kms] making it the longest canal system in the world. The famous Roman Catholic missionary Matteo Ricci traveled from Nanjing to Beijing along the canal at the end of the 16th century. It was built in 1954 and completed in 1967 having a length of 840 kilometers and further extended in 1970 and 80s up to Caspian Sea coast making its total length of 1400 kilometers. The Kieldrecht Lock, located in the Port of Antwerp in Belgium, is the largest in the world. Despite temporary periods of desolation and disuse, the Grand Canal furthered an indigenous and growing economic market in China's urban centers from the Sui period onwards to the present. [38]. Grand Canal in China is the longest canal in the world stretched 1776 km with 24 locks. It is generally a minimum of 100 meters wide in the congested city centers, and often two or three times this width in the neighboring countryside. It was opened in June of 2016 to provide users of the Left Bank docks access to the sea between the Waasland and Schelt canals. It is the longest big-ship ( as opposed to sub-sized barges) canal of its type in the World. The Panama Canal is not listed in the top but that connecting Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean that saves huge time, transportation expenses for ships and Panama Canal is one of the Engineering Wonders in the World. As in the Song and Jin era, the canal fell into disuse and dilapidation during the Yuan dynasty's decline. Officially opened in November 1869, the Suez Canal is one of the most heavily used shipping routes in the world, witnessing the passage of thousands of vessels every year.The canal, which separates Asia from the African continent, offers a shortest maritime route between Europe and the regions that share a border … [1] Starting in Beijing, it passes through Tianjin and the provinces of Hebei, Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang to the city of Hangzhou, linking the Yellow River and Yangtze River. In 1855, the Yellow River flooded and changed its course, severing the course of the canal in Shandong. The institution of the Grand Canal by the Qin dynasty and the Sui dynasty, mostly the Sui, also obviated the need for the army to become self-sufficient farmers while posted at the northern frontier, as food supplies could now easily be shipped from south to north over the pass. In November 2008, as an extension of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and the passage between the Grand Canal and the Maritime Silk Road, the Eastern Zhejiang Canal was placed into the nomination file in the UNESCO World Heritage program. Huan Wen's primitive summit canal became a model for the engineers of the Jizhou Canal. [12], The earlier dike-building project in 587 along the Yellow River—overseen by engineer Liang Rui—established canal lock gates to regulate water levels for the canal. Historically, periodic flooding of the Yellow River threatened the safety and functioning of the canal. The main Lancaster Canal is lockless, but its Glasson branch has five locks. [31] Each courier station was assigned a different name, all of which were popularized in travel songs of the period.[32]. Construction on the canal began in 486 B.C., but the world's oldest lock came along in 984 AD … Both the Ming and Yuan dynasties significantly reconstructed the canal to alter its route so that it could supply Beijing, which was their capital. From the Yuan Dynasty (1271–1368) to the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912), the Eastern Zhejiang Canal lost its privilege but remained navigable. Even where a canal is lockless for its working length, there may need to be a lock at one end, to connect to a river or even the sea. [10], The sections of the Grand Canal today in Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu provinces were in large part a creation of the Sui dynasty (581–618), a result of the migration of China's core economic and agricultural region away from the Yellow River valley in the north and toward the southern provinces. At present, only the Grand Canal’s section running from Hangzhou to Jining is navigable. [30] Therefore, the Grand Canal served to make or break the economic fortunes of certain cities along its route and served as the economic lifeline of indigenous trade within China. The old summit section is now dry, while the new canal holds too little water to be navigable. The Lancaster canal is 24 miles of lock free cruising as well. The reconstruction of the canal began in 2002, by 2007 it was partially navigable, and the renovation project finished in 2009, though the Ningbo section was not navigable until the end of 2013. Opened in 1796, the shortest (1 mile), widest (65 feet) and deepest (15 feet) canal was a means of providing the town with direct access to the sea and to facilitate trade with Glasgow, Liverpool, Preston and Cardiff. The Grand Canal has mainly been used for transportation from the Tang dynasty to the Qing dynasty since it served as a vital link between the southern and northern regions of China. Traditionally the Shanghe region west of the canal has been prone to frequent flooding, while the Xiahe region to its east has been hit by less frequent but immensely damaging inundations caused by the failure of the Grand Canal levees. The Grand Canal is 1,115 miles long (1,794 kilometers) with a history of over 2,500 years, and it starts at Beijing in the north and ends at Hangzhou in the south. After that, things get more tricky. Both the Ming and Yuan dynasties significantly reconstructed the canal to alter its route so that it could supply Beijing, which was their capital. They are also constructed to reduce the dependency on canal locks.. In the 1950s a new canal was dug to the south of the old summit section. This is an easy route that suits beginners or … Photo by Gil Baillache via Flickr After the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the need for economic development led the authorities to order heavy reconstruction work. 1,115 miles This move deprived Nanjing of its status as chief political center of China. [12], Between 604 and 609, Emperor Yang Guang (or Sui Yangdi) of the Sui dynasty ordered several canals to be dug in a 'Y' shape, from Hangzhou in the south to terminate in (modern) Beijing and the capital region along the Yellow River valley. Grand Canal in China is the longest canal in the world stretched 1776 km with 24 locks. The Manchus established the Qing dynasty (1644–1912), and under their leadership, the Grand Canal was overseen and maintained just as in earlier times. By Benjamin Elisha Sawe on January 10 2018 in World Facts. In Tianjin, the canal heads northwest, for a short time following the course of the Yongding, a tributary of the Hai River, before branching off toward Tongzhou on the edge of the municipality of Beijing. Its main role throughout its history was the transport of grain to the capital. It is not only the world’s longest artificial river or canal, it is also a tourist destination. As a result of these periodic floods, the region experienced prolonged economic hardships and disaster. After leaving Hangzhou the canal passes around the eastern border of Lake Tai, through the major cities of Jiaxing, Suzhou, Wuxi, and Changzhou before reaching Zhenjiang. It is also known as the 京 杭 大 运 河 JīngHáng Dà Yùnhé where ‘Jing’ stands for Beijing and ‘Hang’ for Hangzhou - naming it the ‘Beijing Hangzhou grand canal’. From the Tang to Qing dynasties, the Grand Canal served as the main artery between northern and southern China and was essential for the transport of grain to Beijing. [26], The Grand Canal was renovated almost in its entirety between 1411 and 1415 during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644). Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal of China. The Huitong Canal, built by an engineer called Ma Zhizhen, ran across sharply sloping ground and the high concentration of locks gave it the nicknames chahe or zhahe, i.e. The canal was last used commercially in 1916 and abandoned completely by 1945. [22] This prompted Qiao Weiyue, an Assistant Commissioner of Transport for Huainan, to invent a double-gate system known as the pound lock in the year 984. The southern portion remains in heavy use to the present day. Its southern section, running between Hangzhou and the Yangtze, was named the Jiangnan River (the river ‘South of the Yangtze’). The convenience of transport also enabled rulers to lead inspection tours to southern China. Very few British canals are lockless - depending on your definition of canal. [12] Double slipways were installed to haul boats over when the difference in water levels were too great for the flash lock to operate. [6] This canal became known as the Han Gou (邗溝, "Han Conduit"). It was mainly used for transporting grain to Beijing, but the route was also used for shipping other commodities. The governments of the Shandong, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang Provinces planned dredging meant to increase shipping capacity by 40 percent by 2012. [18] The Tang government oversaw canal lock efficiency and built granaries along the route in case a flood or other disaster impeded the path of shipment. A magistrate of Jining, Shandong sent a memorandum to the throne of the Yongle Emperor protesting the current inefficient means of transporting 4,000,000 dan (428,000,000 liters) of grain a year by means of transferring it along several different rivers and canals in barge types that went from deep to shallow after the Huai River, and then transferred back onto deep barges once the shipment of grain reached the Yellow River. Additional amounts of water from the Yangtze will be drawn into the canal in Jiangdu City, where a giant 400 m3/s (14,000 cu ft/s) pumping station was already built in the 1980s, and is then fed uphill by pumping stations along the route and through a tunnel under the Yellow River, from where it can flow downhill to reservoirs near Tianjin. A canal tunnel is a tunnel for a canal.The building of a canal tunnel is crucial to help a waterway that is normally used for shipping cross a difficult section of terrain. Without these locks, the canal would have had to be cut at least 26m deep into the rock and a bit more to allow for the draft of the ships, over a distance of … [24] The Jurchen Jin dynasty continually battled with the Song in the region between the Huai River and the Yellow River; this warfare led to the dilapidation of the canal until the Mongols invaded in the 13th century AD and began necessary repairs. This, the Grand Canal's first true summit section, was engineered by the Mongol Oqruqči in 1238 to connect Jining to the southern end of the Huitong Canal. The Jiangnan (or ‘South of the Yangtze’) Canal is heavily utilized by barge traffic bringing coal and construction materials to the booming delta. Suez Canal Map. Such a case occurred in the year 858 when an enormous flood along the Grand Canal inundated thousands of acres of farmland and killed tens of thousands of people in the North China Plain. It is the longest man-made waterway in the world. The canal itself, at over 1,110 miles, includes 24 locks. It is a sea-level canal and does not require locks. So back to the Ulverston Canal. This change in effect moved the Grand Canal from the low-lying and flood-prone land west of Weishan Lake onto the marginally higher land to its east. The Grand Canal (also known as the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal), a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the longest canal in the world or the longest artificial river in the world. The Panama Canal is not listed in the top but that connecting Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean that saves huge time, transportation expenses for ships and Panama Canal is one of the Engineering Wonders in the World. However, several sections of the canal were first linked together between 581 and 618 CE during the Sui dynasty. The Grand Canal’s oldest sections trace their history to the 5th century BCE. Very few British canals are lockless - depending on your definition of canal. 8,900 kilometres saved ... terrain make the Suez Canal the longest canal without locks Source: BBC. The beautiful Lancaster Canal runs for 41 miles through breathtaking rolling countryside from Tewitfield to its terminus at Preston. From here to Linqing, the canal is called the Lu or ‘Shandong’ Canal. Worcester and Birmingham Canal: grid reference: Longest flight in the UK. The northernmost portion, linking Beijing and Luoyang, was named the Yongji Channel. 10 – Wilts and Berks Canal – 52.5 mi (84 km) – Number of Locks: 42. The Grand Canal nominally runs between Beijing and Hangzhou over a total length of 1,794 km (1,115 mi), however, only the section from Hangzhou to Jining is currently navigable. The Grand Canal, known to the Chinese as the Jing–Hang Grand Canal (Chinese: 京杭大運河; pinyin: Jīng-Háng Dà Yùnhé; lit. [27] Chinese engineers built a dam to divert the Wen River to the southwest in order to feed 60% of its water north into the Grand Canal, with the remainder going south. [18] To ensure smooth travel of grain shipments, Transport Commissioner Liu Yan (in office from 763 to 779) had special river barge ships designed and constructed to fit the depths of each section of the entire canal.[19]. The canal's central portions stretched from Yangzhou to Luoyang; the section between the Yangtze and the Huai continued to the Shanyang River, and the next section connected the Huai to the Yellow River and was called the Tongji Channel. According to records, during the canal’s peak years, over 8,000 boats shipped about 360,000 metric ton of grain annually. China’s Grand Canal is the longest artificial waterway in the world, traveling over 1100 miles from Beijing to Hangzhou. [12] The Grand Canal was fully completed under the second Sui emperor, from the years 604 to 609,[13] first by linking Luoyang to the Yangzhou (and the Yangtze valley), then expanding it to Hangzhou (south), and Beijing (north). The Grand Canal of China is the world's oldest and longest canal, far surpassing the next two grand canals of the world: Suez and Panama Canal.The building of the canal began in 486 B.C. The Grand Canal, is the longest as well as the oldest canal or artificial river in the world. After the canal's completion in 609, Emperor Yang led a recorded 105 km (65 mi) long naval flotilla of boats from the north down to his southern capital at Yangzhou.[11]. Wilts and Berks Canal. Stretching from Preston all the way to Kendal on the doorstep of the Lake District, the ‘Lanky’ as the Lancaster Canal is known, gives you a full 41 miles of lock-free cruising – … The pound lock was constructed by Qiao Weiyue an engineer and government official between 960 and 1279 during the Song dynasty. [19], During the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368) the capital of China was moved to Beijing, eliminating the need for the canal arm flowing west to Kaifeng or Luoyang. The Tonghui river still exists as a wide, concrete-lined storm-channel and drain for the suburbs of Beijing. [3] The canal has been admired by many throughout history including Japanese monk Ennin (794–864), Persian historian Rashid al-Din (1247–1318), Korean official Choe Bu (1454–1504), and Italian missionary Matteo Ricci (1552–1610).[4][5]. Lock 8 is the second longest canal lock in the world at 421 metres in length. By the 1990s, pollution in the canal had reached the point where boat and barge crews could tell when they were nearing Hangzhou by the stench of the visibly black water. At present, diversions of water mean that the lakes are often largely dry land. Starting from our Chirk Base you can enjoy a two-day trip to the head of this canal, then return with no locks to travel through. [14] Running alongside and parallel to the canal was an imperial roadway and post offices supporting a courier system.
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